As the damp dawn mists roll down the valley of the Dee,
keeping silent pace with the icy waters of the river, it is easy to imagine the
gentle chiming of a Saintís bell and hear the distant echoes of some ancient
chant glorifying the wonder of another dawn - giving thanks for the golden light of
a new way of life for the Pictish peoples who thronged the glen.

Christianity came to Pictland of Alba many
years before other parts of what we now call the British Isles.
St Ninian and his disciples had converted large parts of Scotland
(or as we should call it - Alba) before the erstwhile St
Patrick had even arrived in Ireland. By a strange coincidence, St Columba, the great Colum Cille, ended his work in this world
in the
very same year that St Augustine landed in the south of England
to begin converting the natives. It is little wonder that
throughout medieval times the church in Alba was always granted
an especially privileged place in the hearts and minds of
successive popes. Alba can truly be thought of as one of the
cradles of Christianity in Northern Europe. Over the years many
Saints were to set out from our shores to embark on great
missionary expeditions. Some sought the ultimate fate of the red
martyrdom at the hands of barbarian tribes, others the simple
peace of a hermits cell and the fleeting company of wild
animals.

On viewing the title I have used here, the
minds of many local Aberdonians would pounce on the name of
St Machar as being the obvious focus of my thinking  but
they would be very wrong! The story of St Machar is best left for
another day and another dram (!) but suffice it here to say that
this man, be he called Machar or Mochumma, may be a myth! No, I
seek here to lay before you the name of another. A Saint who has
a much surer foundation in our countrys history, if this is
at all possible when looking so far back into our ancient past. I
wish to speak to you of a man who was born on Deeside and learned
his doctrine from some of the greatest teachers of the time. A
man who spent his life amongst his own people, the Picts; who
could speak their tongue; who shared their folk lore and, most
importantly, had shared their hardships. No missionary from some
foreign part was he and yet his name is so little known that one
may think that it has been erased on purpose and hidden away from
generations of Deesiders.

Have I whetted your appetite? Well, I hope so, for it is
to our disgrace that we have kept his identity a secret for so
long. The man is ERCHARD. None the wiser? Well, you would be if
you came from Kincardine ONeil!

St Erchard, it is said, was born in the Pictish
settlement whose remains are still to be seen on the hillside
above Tolmauds, about four miles to the north of Kincardine
ONeil (or Kinker as the locals know it). Erchard or
Merchaid as he is also called by early chroniclers (your
imagination may be kindled here by the similarity between the
Gaidhealic form of his name and Machar!) became a student of St
Ternan at his banchor which, of course, we now know as
Banchory. The term banchor was used to denote a Christian
settlement where was to be found a seat of learning and
instruction. It is the same root from which the city of Bangor
derives its name. Erchard was destined to become a powerful
spiritual force in the valley and one of Ternans greatest
disciples. In the course of time St Ternan ordained him a
presbyter and Merchaid resolved to devote himself to
continuing the work of the ancient father of Christianity in Alba
 St Ninian.

Merchaid is said to have founded the
original church at Kincardine ONeil over which the ruins of
the present medieval church stand. This church was from ancient
times dedicated in the name of its founder, as was the custom. It
was only later, when the church in Alba became Romanised, that
dedications became strictly biblical, often at the expense of the
more ancient dedications! Close by, on the other side of the
road, the reader will still see St Erchards well. Latterly,
the local residents have started to revive the memory of this man
who should be hailed as one of the heroes of the early church and
to celebrate his festival each year on the 24th of
August.

But Merchaid was not destined to stay on
Deeside. He, along with another of Ternans great disciples
St Drostan, followed literally in the footsteps of St Ninian.
Heading northwards he came via the muinnitir at Clova
(close to Lumsden) to that at Dunbeath (Glass). Whilst in
Strathglass he discovered a bell hidden in the ground at the foot
of a certain tree and resolved to end his wanderings and found
his new church at the place where the bell rang for the third
time of its own accord. Following Ninian's route he eventually
came to Glenmoriston on the banks of Loch Ness and here the bell
rang for the first time at Suidh Mhercheird, St
Merchaids Seat. The second time it rang at Fuaran
Mhercheird, St Merchaids Well at Ballintombuie. It
rang for the third time at a spot beside the river Moriston,
known afterwards as Clachan Mhercheird, St Merchards
Church. A bell locally associated with the saint lay on a
tombstone in the burying-ground at Clachan Mhercheird about 1873,
when it was removed by some strangers visiting the district! As
the reader would expect, various miraculous properties were
attributed to it by long-shared legend. It was believed to heal
the sick if they touched it in faith; to find its way back if
removed from the Clachan; to ring of its own accord when a
funeral was approaching the burying-ground; and finally, if cast
on the water, to float on the surface. The people, however, were
always unwilling to apply this extreme test, for they remembered
the warning St Merchaid was said to have uttered: "I
am Merchard from across the land: keep ye my sufferings deep in
your remembrance; and see that ye do not for a wager (or trial)
place this bell in a pool to swim."

St
Merchaid is said to have carried out his missionary work in
the fifth century, a long time before Colum Cille ever set foot
on the soil of Alba. Being a disciple of
St Ternan, Erchard must be counted as one of the earlier
missionaries to work amongst the Picts. His work would seem to
represent the kindling of the Christian fire lit by St Ninian in
the northern parts of Alba. It is also of interest to note that
Merchaid travelled to the Great Glen, in ancient times
known as the Valley of the Saints, which is the supposed route
taken by Ninian on his return to Whithorn. More important
perhaps, he carried out his mission near the ancient capital of
the northern Picts at Craig Phadrig. This fortress is now thought
to have been situated on the hill of the name above Inverness
although the Hill of Torrean is thought by some to be a better
candidate and still within the bounds of Inverness. A minority
claim the Pictish capital was situated at Urquhart where the
ruins of a much later castle now stand. Interestingly, some
sources claim that one of the earlier buildings on this castle
site was a chapel founded by Colum Cille himself. The truth,
however, seems to be that the High King of the Picts moved
his capital between a number of locations, including another at
Loch Insh near Kingussie. It can be argued with certainty that
Merchaid based himself very much on the "main
road" as it were from north to south and that his mission
must have had a huge influence on the Pictish nation. Perhaps
this is why Colum Cille found it relatively easy to convert the
High King Brude Macmelcheon when the two met at Craig Phadrig a
century later. The fact that Merchaid was a Pict himself
and understood the language must have been a huge advantage and
would have added greatly to his powers of conversion.

Some chronicles say that Merchaid visited
Rome and was there made a bishop. We must beware of this facet of
Merchaids history however since it was a very common
practice of the Roman fabulists to say that a Celtic saint
visited Rome. They did this, of course, to try to show that the
early church in Alba owed allegiance to Rome which it most
certainly did not. Even in Colum Cilles time the church in
Alba determinedly preserved its independence from Rome, just as
in later times it declared its independence from the authority of
the Archbishop of York. The story continues to tell us that on
his way home Merchaid remained for a time in Pictavia, now
Poitou in France, and preached the gospel to its inhabitants,
some of whom had lapsed into paganism. Here again we encounter a
fascinating parallel with the supposed history of St Machar as
told in the Aberdeen Breviary. Machar, too, is said to have gone
to Rome and to have been made a bishop. Indeed, he is said to
have been made Archbishop of Tours which is itself in the
northern part of Pictavia or Poitou. Is this similarity another
coincidence or are we, in fact, starting on a trail which will
determine Machar and Merchaid to be one and the same
person?

The ruins of the
medieval church at Kincardine O'Neil.

After his return to the district of Kincardine
ONeil, feeling that death was approaching, he commanded
that his body should be placed in a cart drawn by a pair of
horses, and that a church should be built on the spot where they
halted. This, according to popular belief, was the origin of the
church of Kincardine ONeil; and it was natural that the
saint should have been adopted as its titular.

Most of what we would suggest that we know of
these very early times and the activity of the first Saints comes
from legend and folk lore and is, as a result, open to
questioning and considerable doubt. However, by piecing together
the fragments which do remain, it may be possible to get a
glimpse of the truth. What does seem to emerge is a story which
may have a major consequence  that Erchard or
Merchaid should be placed in the ranks of the early heroes
of the early Celtic or Pictish church in Alba, alongside the
better known Ternan and
Drostan, and, that the deliberately misleading history
contained in the Aberdeen Breviary may in this case be close to a
truth but has confused Machar for Merchaid. Here, indeed,
is a mystery worthy of further investigation. For, if it is the
truth, then Aberdonians have been mislead for many centuries into
the veneration of Machar when, in fact, the target of their
intercessions should have been Merchaid. Can we doubt that
there would have been a much more enthusiastic acceptance of a
local man rather than an Irish foreigner, a man whose roots were
very much in Deeside and a man whose impact on those times is
clear and considerable.

The conclusion is for the reader to draw. For
me, as I sit at home high amongst the freezing hills of Deeside,
the memory of these early times, seen through the crystal amber
of a "wee Tamdhu", and the simple warmth of another
peat on the fire, seems all that I can hope for! But wait, is
that a bell I hear outside .!